Study On Railway Network Plan In Late Qing Dynasty

Study on history of China modern railway is an important part in the study of China modern history. Railway plan is precondition of railway construction, but the study of railway plan thought is an important link of railway history, too. In the study of China modern railway history, research on railway plan thought is very weak and still needs to open up and innovate. China railway construction took place till Late Qing Dynasty. Because of China semi-colonial and semi-feudal social nature, Railway construction went through difficult and arduous course, railway network plan thought displaying peculiar era nature, political tendentiousness, and so on. So study on this respect needs to synthetically take advantage of theories and methods in history science, politics, economics, sociology etc. Probing into the social changes of China modern times with the development of railway network plan thought in Late Qing Dynasty.China was becoming semi-colonial and semi-feudal society step by step after the Opium War (1840-1842). And the Western imperialist powers at this moment had already begun transition from non-monopoly capitalism to monopoly capitalism, namely, imperialism. One of the laws of capitalist economy lies in that seizes the international market, and the enlargement and promotion of the overseas market mainly depended on the development degree of traffic in the country. So, building the passageway on land in China --The railway, even more there was a special meaning of colonial expansion. With railway knowledge spreading in China and Qing government deepened knowing the value of railway gradually, it's attitude toward railway developing from refusal, making arrangements for, running as an experiment to " set up resolutely ". Problem of Railway network plan would produce and develop with the process of railway construction, too. Firstly, Westernization group built 1st railway that Chinese manage by oneself -Tangxu railway because of the need of transporting coal and so on, while problem of railway network plan was not talked about at this moment. Then, Tangxu railway continued to build and reached Yanzhuang, Dagu, Tianjin, etc; which was becoming a part of Beiyang's defense; Network plan thought took shape gradually with it. After Sino-French war and Sino-Japanese war, the extensive railway construction just became the set policy of Qing Government, The royal court from senior officials to junior officials, different people having different views, issuing one's own views to railway, network planning problem had grown a lot on the way, too. This period, the manner of railway construction mainly was to raise funds by the states, but because of the deficient of domestic funds, to borrow from abroad was the main fund-raising way to be used by Qing Government. Which had resulted in the overflowing in a large amount of rights. At the beginning of the 20th century, because of movement rise of regaining economic rights, all parts appeared the climax, which businessmen ran railway, but because each province did things in his own way, reunification problem was conspicuous to deal with. Finally the Ministry of Post and Transportation regained all railway rights and carried on unified planning, railway network plan thought went still one step further. With the development of railway network planning problem continually, the people in Late Qing had deep understanding to some basic principle of planning on network plan. On the whole, including four main respects: First, about political principles of railway network plan, which mainly considered that network plans to satisfy the principle taking political center as standard; the principle of the social stability and enlightening people's mind; the principle of the railway and administration of local officials and reliving, etc; Second, about the economic principles of railway network plan, considering mainly theprinciple of prosperous and strong country and every industry development; the principle of fighting for the profit with the foreigners; the principle...